


Fading

by Iamprongsie



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 00:04:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17538869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamprongsie/pseuds/Iamprongsie
Summary: You fight, you and your friends, fighting for a corrupt government with more human beings being created each day to fight. The opposing side is always smarter and stronger than you, you’re outsmarted at every turn.





	Fading

How the hell do you come back from this? Your best friend, dead (or as good as). His wife, dead. Your friends, dead. Your entire life gone in a heartbeat, at the whim of an emperor. Hope is fleeting, especially in these times. You watch the child that would have known his parents in a happier universe play in the sand, never see green, and wonder if the better life his parents wanted for him will ever come. You think of the girl, adopted into royalty, forging a path for herself in the apprentice legislature. Would she and her brother get along? In another, happier universe, they sit together with their parents, beaming up at them. You're never there. You just fade into the background, an accessory to the story. Years later, the boy grows, and finds you. You tell him of the legacy his father left behind, and he leaves. He comes back changed, eyes hollow. He wants to fight. Your final battle comes, facing what's left of your best friend and brother in all but blood. You can walk away, live to fight another day, but the boy with the suns in his hair and the girl with stars in her eyes will not survive. Her planet didn't. You can't leave them there to face their father, so you fight. You hear him before you see him, body reacting instinctively, one hand dropping to your saber, another in that familiar fighting pose. You do not shrug off your robe, knowing that this will be the end for you. A short battle, reminiscent of that long-ago duel where no one escaped alive. The boy and girl stare, near the man with the deepness of space in his heart and the sky in his mind. You feel nothing at the final blow, your body fading away. This is the end. The victim of the story, fated to never get a happy ending.

Before that. Before the duel, before the order, before that fated meeting in the sands of the desert. A woman, a duchess, ruler of her planet. A pacifist by nature, and you a warrior, you were the star-crossed lovers, fated to a tragic ending. She died in your arms years later, a final utterance of love between the two of you as her head fell and you felt her life force dim. 

The broken-down ship, the girl queen and her small friend, a nine-year-old boy. The strongest they have ever seen, the council whispered, as you were knighted and asked to train him. You trained him to the best of your abilities, but he railed at every turn. Your master was supposed to train him, not you.   
Ten years later, your charge meeting the girl queen again, now a senator. An assassination attempt on her life, your trip and the discovery of the clones. War. A turncoat in the Senate, no-one knowing who to turn to. Your charge married his Senator. 

You fight, you and your friends, fighting for a corrupt government with more human beings being created each day to fight. The opposing side is always smarter and stronger than you, you’re outsmarted at every turn. You come across a strange planet, governed by a warring family. You see your friend’s future, your old master, and another friend die. You can’t save her. She comes back, and you watch as she’s framed for a bombing attack and leaves, vowing to never come back. The look in your friend’s eye as he sees her go is one you never want to see again. You want to hold him, this man with his fate written in the stars and his mind somewhere else entirely. You offer him your hand.  
He executes the Count, and you go off to find the General. Somewhere in the mix, the soldiers you depended on and trusted with your life turn against you, making you flee. He’s gone, he’s gone, to that far-off planet where nothing good ever happens, and you watch the recordings of what he’s done with bile rising in your throat, combating the tide of tears that threaten to spill. You take his Senator wife to that far-off planet, and you watch, racked with guilt as this monster you once called brother turns on her, attacking her. It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault. You step down onto the ramp, shrugging your robe off. He attacks. It’s strange, fighting him outside of duels, with the intent on harming him or killing him, used to only leaving glancing blows and quick flashes. He’s stronger than you remember, corrupted by the Dark, aiming to kill. Eventually you gain the high ground, and you feel a deep sense of regret as you cut his limbs from his body. He was your brother, you loved him, but you failed him like you failed his wife and your friend and your soldiers and your master. He hates you now.

You take his wife to the nearest medical centre, and she gives birth to twins. The girl is given to an old friend, who looks after her and makes sure she never wants for anything. You take the boy back to his remaining family in the desert, a way of apologising to his father’s family for taking him all those years ago. You retreat to the wastes, and watch from afar.

But death is not eternal. You stay on the swampy planet, waiting for the boy to come and complete his training with the old Grandmaster. You see him as he learns about his powers, what he will become if he isn’t wary. You see him leave for the city in the clouds, and watch as he returns with more shadows in his eyes, a new hand, and a parentage he doesn’t want. You watch him learn the truth about the rest of his family, the girl with stars in her eyes, the man who yearned to be free.

You see him on the forest moon, next to his sister. Their father shows up next to you, free and happy for the first time in a long time. Your job is done now, you can fade until nothing is left.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going through my google drive and found this, I reckon it dates from about February? Anyway I thought I'd post it


End file.
